Shatner talks microprocessors circa 1980
Check out this video that AT&T Labs commissioned back in 1980 to teach the world about microprocessors. The video is narrated by William Shatner and gives a nostalgic look back on the birth of the micro-electronics industry.
Audio Archives Are BACK
The audio archives were taken offline recently for maintenance but I’m happy to report that they are back and ready for your listening pleasure! If you haven’t had a chance to listen to some of my radio clips, head on over to the Audio portion of the site by clicking on the Audio button at the top. Once there you can select from various categories. I suggest you start your journey with the Montages category, particularly my 2005 Montage. That clip features the best of my 5 year career in broadcasting and was the last thing that I ever played over the airwaves. The Interviews category is a good one to check out as well. This is where I talk to bands like Nickelback and Alien Ant Farm as well as other celebrities. Airchecks is another fun category where you will hear me take command of a 100,000 watt FM radio station and a 50,000 watt talk radio station. I hope that you enjoy the audio at least half as much as I enjoyed creating it!
Dramatic video of tsunami in Japan
This is one of the most impressive videos that I’ve seen of last week’s tsunami disaster in Japan. In this video, shot from the upper floor of a building, you can see the wall of water destroying everything in its path.
Continuing The Conversation
As you may have noticed, I took a little break from blogging. I’d like to think of it as two years of writers block. It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to say, it was more like I did not have time to say it. This can be partially blamed on the Twitter phenominom that began around the same time that my blogging ended. My thoughts and expressions became limited to 140 character tweets of which I did a really good job of squeezing in every available character. My tweets consisted of things that I had either brought up or overheard in conversations with my friends, family and peers.
Something you may not have noticed is that my online presence hit a major milestone last March when my namesake domain turned 10 years old. I started blogging back in Y2K because at the time there was no other way to get your point across to all of your friends all at once. Sure there were websites like Livejournal and Xanga but they all required your friends to have an account in order to join in the conversation. Having watched The Social Network last night I can see that what I was trying to do at the time was very similar to what Zuckerberg was doing with Facebook only on a smaller and more personal scale. I wanted my friends and family, all of whom were scattered across the globe, to have one-click access to everything that I felt like sharing with the world.
So here we are, almost 11 years later. Everyone on the planet can create their own web presence using only an email address and a password. I questioned whether or not to keep this portal going or to migrate everything to the social network. What I have decided to do is to harness the power of both the social network and the web portal. Social networks are great for in-the moment conversation but do little for archiving and in-depth discussion. You may see a tweet or status update from me but that will only be the start of the conversation. If the 140 teaser grabs you, I invite all of my friends, family, and peers to visit BrendanOnline and continue the conversation.
No Laughing Matter
By now everyone has heard the news of George Carlin’s exit and have dealt with it in their own way. The news hit me like a brick last week. I had just seen Carlin in October at the Fox Theatre. He was warming up material for his upcoming HBO Special. He looked old but no one there knew that in six months time he would no longer be writing new material for the next special. If you saw the special you’ll notice that he was a little morbid and it had me wondering all week if he knew this would be the last laugh. I really enjoyed Carlin’s work because he made you laugh and he made you think all in the same joke. He didn’t pull any punches and didn’t care if he offended his audience. As he told those of us in attendance back in October:
The audience doesn’t figure into my plans....I’m here for me, you’re here for me and no one’s here for you
Kevin Smith wrote a good article on Carlin for Newsweek. I suggest you read it if you’re a fan of either. George Carlin was one of my favorite Comedians and I’m glad that I got the chance to sit 4 seats away from him. Now who’s going to pick up where he left off?
